Mill City FC

Mill City FC

Background

Mill City FC, based in Lowell, Mass, was formed in 2013 and serves dozens of towns in the area with aspirations to continue growing in the state. The founders of this new club include both long-time local youth soccer coaches and parents of youth soccer players.

The club website says they are “building the kind of club we want for our children – one that develops technically and tactically sound soccer players, and young adults of good character”.

The mission of the club is to develop and educate soccer players in a positive, structured and challenging soccer environment, while also develop young men and women of character and prepare them to succeed in life. Their curriculum focuses on high technical proficiency, good decision-making, and a possession-based style which encourages creativity.

SEE MORE: map of soccer clubs in Massachusetts.

Club Composition

[Best I can tell] the club is composed of academy programs (offering soccer, futsal, beach soccer and coaching programs) and soccer teams. But then they have on their website “Academy Soccer Teams” so it can be confusing at first glance.

They have a great page on their website Why Mill City FC? which presents compelling reasons to play club soccer as opposed to town and why you should consider Mill City. While they believe in winning games and the importance of developing strong teams they stress, too, the huge significant of individual player development. Good youth soccer players are more marketable (i.e. colleges recruiting) if they are solid players not simply because they were on a winning team.

A case is further made how some of the larger clubs in Mass focus solely on winning, providing your child perhaps just a glimmer of hope of moving up to the “A” team within that club and all along not developing the soccer skills of your child – year after year. It’s a common theme and kudos to Mill City for putting it on their site.

Soccer Teams

The Mill City teams play in the Northeast Soccer League (NSL) spring and fall seasons (which last about 10 weeks or so) while the futsal teams may play in either the local state or regional leagues (two sessions with each about approximately 8 weeks long). Seasons are the typical fall and spring as well as winter (January – March) and summer (usually a tournament along with some Academy activities).

While each team has a coach there may be some shuffling around of coaches within the club – you must understand this upfront and ask them any questions before you commit as some parents like the continuity of one coach throughout the season(s). Mill City coaches are considered coaches of the club as opposed to coaches of the team.

Club fees for the Mill City FC U10 – U14 soccer program are $2,000 while the U15 plus is $1,500.

 

 

Camps/Clinics

The Mill City Academy offers their sessions/courses (i.e. soccer, futsal, and beach soccer) at various times and for varying lengths. So soccer, for example, may be a week-long camp while futsal could be single sessions. The programs offered are for U6 and older players who want to improve their soccer skills without the cost and time commitment of the Mill City competitive teams.  They provide a unique opportunity to try the Academy for free before you make a commitment.

Soccer academy sessions are currently $250 for full days and $175 for half days.

[The Mill City Academy may be under the PASA FC banner until they fully merge the two clubs. See PASA.]

Facilities

Training and practices

Jack Walsh Field
100 Carlisle Rd
Westford, MA 01886

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Home Games

Chelmsford High School
200 Richardson Road
North Chelmsford, MA 01863

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McCarthy Middle School
250 North Road Road
Chelmsford, MA 01824

 

Website

• Appears to be very current and they do a good job about updating the home page often with current events.
• Contact information for all the coaches (along with bios of each).
• Good search feature to find items quickly.
• Very upfront on who they are and how they may be different from other clubs.
• Mill City highlights up front what you’ll be paying in fees and what they cover.

• Understandably you’d want to create a website based around the club colors but the all black and red is not very pleasing to the eyes – is it just me?